Streaming bitrate calculator

Yes, for one feed at up to 6,000 kbps video — that covers 720p60 anywhere, or 1080p60 on Twitch's standard 6,000 kbps cap. With 128 kbps audio and a 50% safety margin that needs about 9.2 Mbps. A full 12,000 kbps 1080p60 feed for YouTube, Kick, or Facebook needs about 18.2 Mbps, and two or more separate local feeds need even more — for multiple platforms on 10 Mbps, use a cloud multistreaming service so only one feed leaves your connection.

Twitch's standard H.264 ingest caps video at 6,000 kbps. With 128 kbps audio and the recommended 50% headroom, plan for roughly 9.2 Mbps of sustained upload. Eligible channels can enable Enhanced Broadcasting in their streaming software for higher limits, but the standard path is the safe baseline.

Match the video bitrate to your target quality: about 4,000 kbps for 720p30, 6,000 kbps for 720p60, 10,000 kbps for 1080p30, and 12,000 kbps for 1080p60 — capped by your strictest destination (Twitch standard tops out at 6,000 kbps). Use CBR rate control, a 2-second keyframe interval, and 128 kbps AAC audio. The calculator above prints these numbers for your exact setup.

Only if your encoder sends each copy itself (local fan-out): three destinations means three full feeds, roughly triple the upload. A cloud multistream service takes one feed from you and fans it out server-side, so your upload requirement stays the same no matter how many destinations you add.

Roughly 0.45 GB per hour for every 1 Mbps of stream. A Twitch-capped 1080p60 feed at 6.13 Mbps uploads about 2.8 GB per hour; a full 12,000 kbps 1080p60 feed about 5.5 GB per hour. Multiply by the number of outbound feeds if you fan out locally.

Wired ethernet, whenever possible. Live streams need a sustained, stable upload — Wi-Fi adds jitter and packet loss that show up as dropped frames even when a speed test looks fast. If you must use Wi-Fi, add extra headroom (use the 100% setting in the calculator) and run a speed test from the streaming machine itself.